Jakobshavn Isbrae: Mighty Greenland glacier slams on brakes
From the BBC
By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent 14 Could 2019
Picture copyright Copernicus Sentinel information (2019)/Esa Picture caption Jakobshavn in April this 12 months: The glacier is a crucial drainage outlet for the Greenland Ice Sheet
European satellites have detailed the abrupt change in behaviour of one among Greenland’s most necessary glaciers.
Within the 2000s, Jakobshavn Isbrae was the quickest flowing ice stream on the island, travelling at 17km a 12 months.
Because it sped to the ocean, its entrance finish additionally retreated and thinned, dropping in top by as a lot as 20m 12 months.
However now it’s all change. Jakobshavn is travelling rather more slowly, and its trunk has even begun to thicken and lengthen.
“It’s a whole reversal in behaviour and it wasn’t predicted,” stated Dr Anna Hogg from Leeds College and the UK Centre for Polar Remark and Modelling (CPOM).
“The query now could be: what’s subsequent for Jakobshavn? Is that this only a pause, or is it a switch-off of the dynamic thinning we’ve seen beforehand?”
Picture copyright CPOM–A. E. Hogg Picture caption Change in top: There was a marked change after 2013
The glacier is sited in southwest Greenland. It’s well-known for its spectacular manufacturing of icebergs – colossal blocks calve from its terminus and drift down its fjord, out into Disko Bay and onwards to the North Atlantic.
Greater than seemingly, it was Jakobshavn that spawned the iceberg that sank the Titanic.
Scientists’ curiosity within the glacier lies in its function as a drainage outlet for the Greenland Ice Sheet. It’s a key channel for the export of ice that may then increase international sea ranges.
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